1. Field
The present application relates to wireless communication, and in particular, to systems, methods and apparatus to enable management wireless network resources.
2. Background
The popularity of high-rate wireless data services is increasing the demand for wireless channel access and Internet Protocol (IP) addresses in wireless networks.
On the one hand, the ability to satisfy the demand for wireless channel access is often limited by a lack of available frequency spectrum that may be used for reliable communications within a particular geographic area. Given the limitations of the natural frequency spectrum there is a challenge in accommodating the increasing demand for wireless channel access.
On the other hand, the ability to satisfy demand for IP addresses (or more generally packet data network connections) can also be limited by the number of available IP addresses that can be assigned within the network. To alleviate demand, IP addresses are often dynamically assigned to mobile devices or other access terminals to enable IP address reuse. That is, once an access terminal no longer needs the assigned IP address, the access terminal is able to release the IP address back to the network, or the network forces the access terminal to relinquish the IP address when the access terminal is inactive on the associated traffic channel. However, in instances where the access terminal wants to keep an IP address, despite not actively using the associated traffic channel, the access terminal sends a keep-alive message to prevent the network from forcing the access terminal to relinquish the IP address. These keep-alive messages increase the demand for channel access, increase access terminal signal processing to receive and respond to the keep-alive messages, and consume available battery power in mobile access terminals.